Plague Time

I am, in fact, deeply grateful for e-mail.  It allows me to be in ready contact with colleagues both in this country and abroad, and to pursue opportunities I would otherwise never be able to. But then there are days like today.  My e-mail has been increasingly difficult to keep up with for the last year or so.  But just before supper this evening, I looked at how many e-mails I had written and sent today.  The total: exactly 100.  By now, of course, it's a bit more than that. I spent much of the day trying to reschedule a student trip to Germany that was canceled due to the coronavirus crisis.  We were going to travel over Easter; now we will try it next fall instead.  Probably about half of the e-mails were related to that.  I don't even want to know how many words I wrote today.  If they were a book.... Now it's back to real work, reading the first half of Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther  so that I can put together a mini-l...

I mentioned the other day that when I returned from my once-a-week trip to the office, to swap the books I don't need anymore for the ones I do need know, I also brought home with me a few to read just for fun... even if I'm not likely to find much time for that.  (Hope for participants in the Read-a-Book Challenge !) But which books were those, enquiring minds want to know--the ones I might read just for fun?  Well, one of them is pictured above: A Journey in Languages & Cultures , by Francois Grosjean .  It's a memoir of his life growing up in different cultures (French, Swiss, English, American) and moving back and forth between different languages.  I'm not very far into yet, but it's quite interesting. I discovered that Grosjean also writes a blog on bilingualism for Psychology Today .  It's called "Life as a Bilingual."   Good stuff--take a look.

I don't think I'm going to have time for this right now, but if you are still looking for things to do in your spare time while home on lockdown, I was tipped off by an e-mail from The New Criterion --the finest magazine in the United States, incidentally--to a fascinating resource.  The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art has a whole library of videos and lectures available online.  Lots of interesting stuff here. I don't really know very much about architecture, which is one of the gaps in my education.  I've learned enough to fake my way through a few classes on Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos when I teach about fin de siècle  Vienna.  Maybe here is a chance for me to learn something.

I was hoping to write a bit more substantial post this evening, but it has gotten fairly late, so I won't do that any more.  (Sorry, I know you are deeply disappointed!)  But I did want to pause for a moment and appreciate the fact that I (we) made it through the first week of online Houghton-at-home. For me it was a fairly hectic week.  Transitioning all of my classes online is challenging, but my department was also trying to interview a candidate in history this week--which we unfortunately had to do remotely, instead of being able to bring him on campus.  I was supposed to travel with 19 students to Germany over Easter--we would have left next weekend--so I have been working to reschedule that trip for next fall instead.  A professional association on whose board I serve--the Austrian Studies Association--has been meeting (also via Zoom!) to cancel its conference, planned for June in Poland, and perhaps schedule that next year.  And I've still been...

This morning we "attended" St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, which livestreamed its mass this morning.  Definitely not the same as attending church in person, but better than nothing.  Cardinal Dolan, who is a bit of a character, gave a pretty good sermon. Ironically, at this time when many of us cannot go to church, there are suddenly countless options available for church "attendance."  I could sit here all day in front of my computer doing nothing but going to church (as it were). Last week we were at the Basilica at the University of Notre Dame , where my wife and I went to grad school. Later last Sunday we were also in the Cologne Cathedral . Father Alexander, from St. Patrick's in Soho--the church we attended most frequently when we were in London with the Honors Program--doesn't yet have enough subscribers to his YouTube channel to livestream (you could help him out!) but has been uploading daily prerecorded masses. Even...

That's what my office feels like these days: the old stomping grounds, from a very long time ago. I was back in my office late this afternoon, for exactly one and a half hours, for the first time in a week.  Since Governor Cuomo ordered all New Yorkers to stay at home, the college has had to limit the number of employees on campus at any one time.  To put it mildly.  The dean may permit one faculty member at a time to be on campus.  And we need his authorization in advance. My students know that I have a lot of books in my office (or offices).  Occasionally, I even need one of them.  Or two.  Or three.  So I requested, and received, permission to be in the Chamberlain Center late Saturday afternoons, a time I figured few others would want to be there anyway. It was a bit odd--a very familiar place that felt rather lifeless, as if the spirit had been sucked out of the building.  On the other hand, it was good to see my books again....

Being on lockdown in Houghton, cooped up in the house, is much more depressing on a rainy day than when the sun is shining and one can at least get out for a walk. Deep thoughts, I know.

I ran into my first challenge in the Psalms Challenge this morning.  So far they have all been pretty short, so it has not been too difficult to stick to my resolution and read my way through them, two each morning, two each evening.  (Well, okay, once I missed the morning and had to play catch-up at night.) But this morning I reached Psalm 18.  More than two whole pages!  That David!  How dare he? But it was a good psalm for trying times like these.  "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge....  In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help.  From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears" (18:2, 6). Onward to numbers 19 and 20 this evening.

You probably cannot go to concerts right now.  But the concerts can come to you. The Berlin Philharmonic is currently offering a free voucher for a one-month subscription to its Digital Concert Hall, with a large archive of concerts and other materials.  The offer is only good until March 31, so act fast. I am sitting here right now, as I prepare to grade some more papers, listening to Sibelius' tone poem Tapiola , from a 2019 concert.  Coming up on the program are Tschaikowsky,  Bach, and Schumann.

It is a sign of how preoccupied I have been with getting my classes online that I did not even realize until just now that yesterday would have been Opening Day . Things are really bad when there isn't even any baseball. Go Tribe.  Sometime.

 If you are thinking of joining the Read-a-Book Challenge but are wondering what to tackle, here's an idea.  I wandered over to campus this morning--during the one-hour-a-day window when the post office is currently open--in order to pick up my mail, which I hadn't done in a week. And what should I find but the latest shipment from Archipelago Books , a wonderful independent press that I discovered by accident about a year ago.  They print lovely editions of foreign works in English translation.  For $15/month you can become a member , which not only supports the work of this independent publisher but also means that they will send you a copy of each new title as it appears, about 10-12 times per year. This time I actually received two new titles, the ones pictured above: Jean Giono, Occupation Journal , from the French by Jody Gladding José Eduardo Agualusa, The Society of Reluctant Dreamers  (what a great title), from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn...

So maybe you weren't up for reading the Psalms.  Or learning a foreign language.  Or maybe you are just still looking for more to do.  So here is one more idea to keep you from twiddling your thumbs and playing with your phones all day, the third (and final) Meilaender Challenge: Read a book!  What the heck... read a bunch of books! This is another chance at eternal renown.  I will publicize the names of any student who reads more books than I do before the end of final exams on May 5.  Okay, it's a little more complicated than that, but here are the rules: 1. Only books count that are not  assigned for class.  (Or, in my case, that I have not assigned to my students.)  In other words, this is extra reading, beyond what you have to do for class anyway. 2. You may re-read a book that you have read previously, but only if you have not read it within the last two years.  (If you aren't sure, use your best judgement.) 3. The books...

Here is an informative look at the dwindling and overtaxed hospital capacity across the United States, with many states looking at a shortage of hospital beds in the near future.

It required showing up at Dollar General at 7:30am, when the doors opened. But I found a few packages of toilet paper. With seven people in the house, this is no small matter.

When we are supposed to stay at home, when our children are back from college, when we are seven in all, when the restaurants are closed and we should limit trips to the supermarket... ...naturally, that is when our oven dies.  RIP. I've never ordered an oven online, sight unseen, but now may be the time to give it a try.

We are all spending a lot of time at home right now.  You could just watch movies, play video games, and post to Instagram all day.  (When you aren't doing schoolwork, of course.)  Or you could do something useful, like... learn a foreign language! For about the last year or so, I have been using the free online website DuoLingo to teach myself French.  It works well and is actually pretty fun.  So here is the second challenge I am issuing my students for the rest of the semester: pick a language (or languages) to learn on DuoLingo, and see if you can make more progress than I do. Here's how it works: DuoLingo measures your progress using a system of "XP" points.  You acquire XP points by completing lessons.  So you need to earn more XP points--starting now!--than I do between now and the end of final exams on May 5. Rules: 1. You must select a language or languages that you do not already know.  For instance, I already know German, so...

A friend recently sent me this article by Heather MacDonald , discussing the various lockdown efforts being taken in response to the coronavirus outbreak.  I don't know whether I agree with it, but I do know that I plan to use it the next time I teach "In Search of Justice."  Students who have taken that class will recognize the issue of trade-offs in MacDonald's piece. She argues, in brief, that the damage being caused by extreme measures to halt the spread of the virus--essentially shutting down large sectors of the US economy, causing unemployment, small business closings, lost revenues, and slowed growth in the future--are disproportionate to the actual severity of the epidemic.  More lives are lost to the flu, she writes, or even to traffic accidents, yet we don't bring the country to a halt because of them. As I say, I'm not sure I agree.  This virus spreads so quickly that the extreme measures may be our only way of ensuring that medical provider...

I thought especially of my East Meets West students when I read about this story in the news today.  (It's possible that the link to the NY Times could be behind a subscriber paywall for some of you.)  It is tough enough to be dealing with all the COVID-19 restrictions--I can't even imagine trying to crawl out from under an earthquake at the same time.  Hard to rescue people from damaged buildings while practicing social distancing.

If you are a major or minor in History, Political Science, Augmented History, Humanities, or German Studies, you are eligible to enter a brand-new essay contest being sponsored by the Department of History and Political Science.  Details available here . And if you aren't a major or minor in one of those areas... it is not too late to become one now !

"Blessed is the man... [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord." (Psalms 1:1-2) In order to join with my students in some common activities during these weeks apart, I plan to issue a few "challenges" for those who are interested.  Here is the first: reading the psalms. I intend to spend the coming weeks reading through the book of Psalms.  I will work through them at the rate of four per day: two each morning, two each evening.  I began with the first two this morning.  This should let me work through the entire book roughly over the course of the remaining semester. I invite any of you who are interested to join me in this endeavor.  If you're so inclined, drop me a line (or comment on this post) letting me know that you're reading the psalms together with me. More challenges coming soon.

For all of my current and former students, wherever you are -- this is how you know it is time to begin class again: And I will satisfy your curiosity by answering for you one of those "enduring questions" my students always have, year after year: It's tea.

Some of you may want to see the real Plague Column: Quite impressive.  Houghton needs one.

When I take students to Vienna, we always begin our visit with a quick walking tour of the city, partly to orient ourselves, and partly to keep everyone awake on that first afternoon.  Among the sights we see is the Plague Column , pictured above in a 1742 engraving by Georg Christoph Kriegl.  This remarkable piece of Baroque sculpture, which employs trinitarian motifs to unite political and religious imagery, was erected after one of the last great waves of the plague swept through Vienna in 1679.  Emperor Leopold I commissioned it to remember the epidemic and give thanks for the city's salvation. This seemed like an appropriate image for the first post of this new blog, which I am starting for my students at Houghton College as they have all left to go home in the wake of our own current epidemic.  I hope that you students will find this a helpful way to maintain a sense of connection to me and to Houghton during the weeks ahead, when our relationship will be ...